Choosing a Common IGP for the IP Internet
RFC 1371
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(October 1992; No errata)
Was draft-iesg-commonigp (iesg)
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Author | Phillip Gross | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Internent Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 1371 (Informational) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group P. Gross, Editor Request for Comments: 1371 IETF/IESG Chair October 1992 Choosing a "Common IGP" for the IP Internet (The IESG's Recommendation to the IAB) Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Special Note This document was originally prepared as an Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) recommendation to the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) in mid-summer 1991, reaching the current version by the date shown above. Although the document is now somewhat dated (e.g., CIDR and RIP II are not mentioned), the IESG felt it was important to publish this along with the recent OSPF Applicability Statement [11] to help establish context and motivation. Abstract This memo presents motivation, rationale and other surrounding background information leading to the IESG's recommendation to the IAB for a single "common IGP" for the IP portions of the Internet. In this memo, the term "common IGP" is defined, the need for a common IGP is explained, the relation of this issue to other ongoing Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) routing protocol development is provided, and the relation of this issue to the goal for multi- protocol integration in the Internet is explored. Finally, a specific IGP is recommended as the "common IGP" for IP portions of the Internet -- the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol. The goal of this recommendation is for all vendors of Internet IP routers to make OSPF available as one of the IGP's provided with their routers. IESG [Page 1] RFC 1371 Choosing a "Common IGP" October 1992 Table of Contents 1. Background .................................................... 2 2. Multiple Internet Standard Routing Protocols Possible ......... 3 3. A Common IGP .................................................. 3 4. Impact of Multi-protocol Topology and Integrated IP/CLNP Routing 3 5. Commitment to Both IP and CLNP ................................ 5 6. Some History .................................................. 5 7. IESG Recommendations .......................................... 6 7.1 Regarding the Common IGP for the IP Internet ................. 6 7.2 Regarding Integrated IP/CLNP Routing ......................... 7 7.3 Limits of the Common IGP Recommendation ...................... 7 8. References .................................................... 8 9. Security Considerations ....................................... 9 10. Author's Address ............................................. 9 1. Background There is a pressing need for a high functionality non-proprietary "common" Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) for the TCP/IP protocol family. An IGP is the routing protocol used within a single administrative domain (commonly referred to as an "Autonomous System" (AS). By "common", we simply mean a protocol that is ubiquitously available from all router vendors (as in "in common"). Users and network operators have expressed a strong need for routers from different vendors to have the capablity to interoperate within an AS through use of a common IGP. Note: Routing between AS's is handled by a different type of routing protocol, called an "Exterior Gateway Protocol" ("an EGP", of which the Border Gateway Protocol [2] and "The Exterior Gateway Protocol" [3] are examples.) The issues of routing between AS's using "an" EGP is not considered in this memo. There are two IGPs in the Internet standards track capable of routing IP traffic -- Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) [4] and Integrated IS- IS [5] (based on the OSI IS-IS). These two protocols are both modern "link state" routing protocols, based on the Dijkstra algorithm. There has been substantial interaction and cooperation among the engineers involved in each effort, and the protocols share some similar features. However, there are a number of technical design differences. Most noteably, OSPF has been designed solely for support of the Internet Protocol (IP), while Integrated IS-IS has been designed to support both IP and the OSI Connectionless Network Layer Protocol (CLNP) IESG [Page 2] RFC 1371 Choosing a "Common IGP" October 1992 simultaneously. 2. Multiple Internet Standard Routing Protocols Possible The Internet architecture makes a distinction between "Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs)" and "Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGPs)".Show full document text